News of the World

By: Jennifer Verzuh

Like many Westerns before it, News of the World features its protagonists making a perilous journey across a rugged landscape, complete with gunfights, risky encounters with outlaws and treacherous weather conditions. But what makes this film unique within its genre is how it is quiet and reflective.

The film takes place in a beautiful, but still dangerously wild post-Civil War Texas and we see a deeply divided area that still is trying to grapple with the impact and final result of the war. Tom Hanks plays Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a veteran who now makes his living traveling from town to town reading aloud from newspapers to a captive audience. He is no sly gunslinger, but a noble and pensive man. He’s a strong believer in the importance of stories, yet is unwilling to come to terms with own. On his travels he comes across a young girl named Johanna (Helena Zengel) by her birth parents who has now been orphaned twice. It seems she was kidnapped by a Kiowa tribe years ago, raised by them and considered them her family until they were recently all slaughtered. Kidd discovers that she has an uncle and aunt across the state and finds himself entrusted to deliver her there. She doesn’t speak English, has no desire to be placed with a family she doesn’t know and struggles with the traumas in her past and her conflicting sense of identity.

The most remarkable thing about this film is that it is so grounded. It never makes a spectacle of itself or tries to be particularly grand due to director and co-writer Paul Greengrass’ gentle and character driven direction. The most stirring and important scenes are intimate moments shared between its characters rather than deadly shootouts. This isn’t a film about exploration, good versus evil or even survival. Rather it’s a more nuanced story about identity and being willing to face our past to move forward. Greengrass approaches this topic on both a personal and national level in his and Luke Davies’ script.

The filmmaker’s decidedly un-glamorous approach carries over to the actors’ performances as well. Hanks will likely be the most understated lead actor in awards season conversations. There’s no bravado here. He’s simply a tired, weathered man with a sadness following him that he’s been unable to shake and truthfully that’s infinitely more interesting to watch than a heroic cowboy figure. Hanks leans into his likable and comforting persona here as his character increasingly becomes a friend and father figure to Johanna to believable and often heartwarming effect.

Although based on an original novel of the same name by Paulette Jiles, the News of the World has already been compared to another classic Western film The Searchers and this will likely only continue upon its wide release. Comparisons feel unfair though, as News of the World is very much its own film with a special focus on embracing stories, especially one’s own, told with sensitivity.